SPRINT CUP SERIES
HELUVA GOOD! SOUR CREAM DIPS AT THE GLEN Aug. 15, 2011 • Watkins Glen, N.Y. • 92 Laps
RACE 22 TIME OF RACE: 2:16:02 • AVERAGE SPEED: 99.417 mph • MARGIN OF VICTORY: Under Caution • POLE: Kyle Busch, 126.421 mph • LEAD CHANGES: 14 among 8 drivers Worth The Wait Stellar Drive Nets Ambrose First Cup Victory
THE WAIT has been excruciating. Now, the wait is over. Marcos Ambrose, always a
threat to contend when NASCAR’s Sprint Cup teams compete on the series’ two road courses, fi nally made good on that threat — scoring the fi rst Cup victory of his career at Watkins Glen International. “I’ve felt a lot of weight of
expectation and pressure to win and sometimes that clouds judgment,” Ambrose said after passing Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski on a green-white-checkered restart at the 2.45-mile track.
Glen race — run after a one-day delay for rain — having fi nished second or third in his only three Cup starts at the track. T ose close calls and near
misses, however, can now be forgotten. “We survived today,” Ambrose
said. “We fought our way back to the front. We had a late-race restart. We fought and gouged our way to the front and got the win. It was just a dream day and I’m very thankful for the opportunity that I’ve got to be here and that I made the most of it today.”
“[I] screwed up fi rst chance I got.” —KYLE BUSCH
Little wonder. Ambrose, who
hails from Tasmania, is regarded as one of the best road-course racers in the sport, if not the best. Yet time after time, he has seen his potential go unrealized. He rolled into the Watkins
Trailing Busch, and with
Keselowski in his mirror, Ambrose said he was “pretty happy” when the caution came out with four laps to go for an incident involving Paul Menard. T e lengthy cleanup allowed him to cool his brakes and
regroup for a fi nal assault on the leader as the race headed for two extended laps beyond the scheduled 90-lap distance. “On the restart, I tried to
actually blend in behind [Busch] because I knew I was never going to out-brake the 18,” Ambrose said. “With Brad, I just got through the Bus Stop [chicane] really good and forced the issue on him. I never touched him, I don’t think. I got him aero free and I was able to slide past.” As he was making what proved
to be the winning pass, chaos was erupting behind him. Contact from Boris Said shot David Ragan’s Ford into a guardrail and back across the track, where it collected the Toyota of David Reutimann. Ragan slammed into the
outside barrier while Reutimann’s car fl ipped over, slid across the track and hammered the wall. Fortunately, both Ragan and
Reutimann were able to walk away from the crash. Ambrose led four times for
28 laps. T e win moved him up one spot in the standings, to 22nd and made him eligible for a wild card into the Chase if he can crack the top 20. “I don’t know about points,”
said Ambrose. “I really don’t give a hoot about it. I’ve just got to win races, and today we won.” Busch, who started on the pole,
led three times for a race-high 49 laps. “You’re just preparing for the
restart and trying to make sure you get your tires warmed up, your brakes warmed up,” Busch said of the fi nal restart. “But there’s only one corner you’ve got to make, and as soon as you make it through that corner and can keep everything behind you it’ll be smooth sailing. “[I] screwed up fi rst chance I
got. Just got down into Turn 1, didn’t stop the way I needed to, and the wheel didn’t turn the way I expected it to and over-slid the corner, got too far out to the outside and by then everybody was just on my inside.”
—KENNY BRUCE
80 NASCAR ILLUSTRATED
Photo: Jeff Velte
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